INTRODUCTION

   When i first started testing and reviewing hardware media players roughly 5 year ago Plasma and LCD screens were quite simple (just taking their first steps actually) without the plethora of features one can find now even at mid-end, low cost models. Amongst those features are built in hardware media players which i was surprised to see that they are not that bad in reproducing Full HD 1080p media content with quite good image quality. Of course as always the key players/manufacturers in the industry keep introducing new features so they can make their products more appealing to consumers but we always need to remember that one of their main goals is always to reduce the cost of their products (to increase profit) and so one can never really compare one of these low cost internal hardware media players with a retail model like the XIOS DS Media Play! by Pivos which we have here with us today since the differences in specs are quite honestly somewhat vast.

   Established in Fremont, California, Pivos Technology Group, Inc., is a firm set to challenge the curve of our conversation with technology, redefine and create new breed of devices. Our mission is to breathe innovation, performance and quality into technology products with utmost creative and human engineering. Our products are focused on the emerging market of digital peripherals, where computing technology joins today's rich internet media contents. They all share a common goal to simplify your needs for store, deliver and playback of local, networked, or internet media data. Coupled with latest embedded technology, Pivos offers a range of consumer and commercial applications. Founded by a group of industrial veteran and renowned platform developers, Pivos's decades of industrial and product development experience formed the foundation to our ideas and believes. Infused with multi-cultural corporate infrastructure, we promote out of the box thinking and freedom of concepts. Together we create the perfect team to realize the mission to success.

   Much like most latest hardware media players to hit the market the XIOS DS Media Player features android OS and more specifically the latest 4.0 ice cream sandwich edition paired with an ARM Cortex A9 processor running at 1.2GHz, Mali-400 OpenGL GPU, 512MB DDR2 SDRAM, 2GB of NAND Flash, 10/100 Ethernet, 3 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI 1.3 and an MicroSDHC card port with support for cards up to 32GB in capacity. If after reading the main specifications of the unit you're wondering then yes, hardware media players such as the XIOS DS follow the same basic design as all the latest android based smartphones and tablets. Now i really can't say if this "trend" will continue mostly because i don't know what (and if) Sigma Designs and Realtek have up their sleeves but for now let's move forward with this review and see just what the XIOS DS Network Media Player by Pivos has to offer.